1. Field of Invention
The present invention provides a system and method for customized communication processing. More specifically, the present invention provides a system and method for automatically determining the type of call/connection being made and providing specialized processing based on the type of call/connection determined.
2. Description of Related Art
A processing system is known in which telephone calls are routed to a particular database based on the phone number being called. The database and associated system will then provide the user with a menu of options and request the user to enter xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d on the telephone keypad for a particular service, xe2x80x9c2xe2x80x9d for a different service, etc. Such processing is often found in conjunction with 1-800 telephone numbers. For instance, if a user wishes to order an item from a 1 -800 service, the user typically calls the 1 -800 number and responds to the recorded message detailing the available options by pressing the appropriate key on the telephone keypad. These options are the same for every customer that calls the 1 -800 number and are not customizable to specific customers. Thus, new technology is needed to customize communication processing based on the source and/or type of communication.
The present invention is directed to a system and method that provides specialized processing based on the type of communication being made. The system includes at least one user device connected to at least one network through a communications link. The network includes at least one specialized processor that has access to at least one database and which determines the source and/or type of communication being made. The database stores information necessary for identifying the appropriate processing for the particular source and/or type of communication. The specialized processor retrieves the appropriate information from the database corresponding to the source/type of communication and performs specialized processing based on the information retrieved.
The method according to the invention includes automatically determining the source and/or type of communication being made. Based on the determined source/type of communication, information indicating the specialized processing that is to be performed for that source/type of communication is retrieved from the database. The communication is then processed using specialized processing identified by the retrieved information. In this manner, specialized processing of the communication may be automatically performed based on the source and/or type of communication.
These and other features and advantages of this invention are described in or are apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.